Marketplace for Thursday, August 12, 2010

In 2008, federal agents walked into a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and walked out with almost 400 people. At the time it was the biggest immigration raid in U.S. history. For the tiny town of Postville and its main employer, it was devastating. Now, the plant is trying to get back on its feet. Jeff Horwich reports.

A new study from the Pew Hispanic Center says in 2008, 340,000 babies were born in the U.S. to at least one parent who was in this country illegally. That's nearly 1 in 12 newborns. A section of the constitution grants automatic citizenship to those babies. Amy Scott reports on what that means for the economy.

Police departments across the country are finding themselves supplemented, and in some cases supplanted, by private security firms. Simon Hakim of Temple University has studied the issue and talks with Tess Vigeland about why it's happening.

Research in Motion, the company that makes Blackberry smartphones, is under attack from governments that say the device's encryptions are so good it represents a security threat. Steve Henn reports on how one of the Blackberry's key selling points has become the company's Achilles' heel.

Airlines trimmed their fleets as the recession hit and stored their planes in the desert. But cargo and passenger volume are up, so a few major airlines are pulling mothballed 747s out of storage and back into service. Janet Babin reports on what that means for the industry.

General Motors reported second-quarter profits of
$1.3 billion and may soon file papers for an IPO. CEO Ed Whitacre, appointed by the Obama administration to turn GM around, has also announced he will step down and be succeeded by a board member. Reporter Alisa Roth talks with Tess Vigeland about what all this means for GM and the Big Three.

GM has plans to go public. Pretty soon, you could be buying shares of the automaker, which is a little strange, since taxpayers already essentially own GM. So what does Uncle Sam's involvement in a company mean for investors? Stacey Vanek-Smith reports.